


Silver and Sapphire

by vanderlindeandco



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Band Of Brothers - Freeform, F/M, Fluffy, also my titles suck, but I'm bob trash now so, i had to just get over it and post this, i just love me some wild bill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27478996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanderlindeandco/pseuds/vanderlindeandco
Summary: “So?” you asked Bill, eyebrows raised expectantly.He had reached inside his jacket as soon as Toye turned to leave, but withdrew his hand empty. “Patience is a virtue,” he intoned pedantically, his cocky smirk returning in the absence of Joe Toye.“Yeah, one you lack just as much as me,” you replied and he chuckled.“I’ll give you that.” He thrust his hand back inside his coat and pulled out something tied in a plaid handkerchief, and then hesitated before handing it to you. “Promise me you won’t laugh at me, yeah?”
Relationships: Bill Guarnere/Reader
Kudos: 20





	Silver and Sapphire

“Well, look who it is!” You looked up at the familiar drawl as Sergeant Bill Guarnere leaned an elbow on the edge of your aid station. His face was smeared with dirt, and the familiar slightly sour smell of unwashed soldier reached you as a breeze pushed past him, ruffling your headscarf, but his smile was friendly enough to make up for it. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, sweetheart,” he continued, and you smiled, but thought little of the compliment, that, when you had first gotten to Europe, would have left you flustered. As you’d soon learned, many of the men were so starved for female attention, they’d’ve made doe eyes at your own grandma, had she been there (rest her soul), and the flattery lost its effectiveness pretty fast after that.

“Hanging in there, Gonorrhea?” you asked, and he chuckled, though a lance of annoyance flashed through his dark eyes.

“The boys tell you about that one?”

“I heard it,” you said, and he nodded, reaching for the pack of cigarettes in his breast pocket.

“I can assure you there ain’t a bit of truth in it. Just some jackass’s idea of a funny play on words.”

“I mean, it is pretty funny,” you said, shaking your head as he offered you a cigarette, and then stuck one between his own lips, patting around his pockets in search of a lighter.

“Sure,” he said. “Hey, you don’t got a-”  
“Lighter?” you asked, lifting the one you’d pulled from your own pocket as his lengthening search yielded no success.

“You’re an angel,” he said around the cigarette, and you lit it, letting him take a good pull to make sure the tobacco really was burning before you stowed the lighter again.

“So I’ve been told,” you said drily.

“Why’re you harassing her, Bill?” that was Toye, who gave a friendly nod and a smile toward you as he approached before turning his attention back to Bill.

“I ain’t harassin’,” Bill said. “I’ve got a perfectly valid reason to be here.”

“Oh yeah?” Joe asked. “What for, you need her to diagnose your broken heart or somethin’?”

“You’re real smart, you know that, Joe?” Bill snapped with no real venom, elbowing away the other soldier, who was trying to wrap an arm around his shoulders to draw him away. “Like I said, I got a good reason, so roll up your flaps, Toye.”

Toye laughed, rattled Bill’s helmet against his skull (ignoring the scowl he got in response), and walked away with a cheerful, “See you around.”

“So?” you asked Bill, eyebrows raised expectantly.

He had reached inside his jacket as soon as Toye turned to leave, but withdrew his hand empty. “Patience is a virtue,” he intoned pedantically, his cocky smirk returning in the absence of Joe Toye.

“Yeah, one you lack just as much as me,” you replied and he chuckled.

“I’ll give you that.” He thrust his hand back inside his coat and pulled out something tied in a plaid handkerchief, and then hesitated before handing it to you. “Promise me you won’t laugh at me, yeah?” Though he said the words as nonchalantly as he could, for a moment you saw the nervousness in his eyes before he managed to conceal it, and that tiny moment shook down to its root the attitude of friendly imperviousness you’d maintained toward most of the men so far.

You swallowed, surprised by the way your heart rate had accelerated. “Promise.”

“Here you go.” He dropped the gift, whatever it was, into your hand, and it was light - so light it almost seemed as if there was nothing inside the cloth. But when you set it on the table and unfastened the knot, a silver chain slithered out onto the wood, from it hanging a teardrop-shaped sapphire set in silver. You picked it up, the chain almost too fine to grasp with your short-trimmed nails. 

“Bill…” your voice trailed off as you turned the beautiful piece over in your hands. “I…” The blue stone glinted in the watery sunlight, the silver polished as clean as if it were brand new. “Why would I laugh at you?” You were taken so off guard, you had no idea what to say, and the question sprang from your lips unbidden as you looked up at him.

He shrugged, and his bearing was something you had never,  _ ever _ thought would see on Wild Bill Guarnere- bashful. “I dunno. I’m just, ah-” he scratched the back of his neck roughly. “-not much of the sentimental type. Heard you sayin’ you lost a necklace on your way out here a couple weeks back, and when I found it, I was thinking I was gonna send it home for my pops to pawn, but I thought it’d look nicer on you than in some shop window.”

“It… Wow.” Your continued speechlessness seemed to rekindle his ego, and when you looked back up at him, he was smiling again, back to the cocky, confident Bill you knew.

“You like it?”

“Yeah, I do,” you said firmly, and held it up to your throat to latch it, fingers fumbling with the tiny pieces of metal behind your neck. “Care to give me a hand?”

“‘Course,” he said. You turned your back to him, his hands brushing yours as he took the clasp from them. You heard the metal click, and whether his fingers brushing against the intensely sensitive skin of the back of your neck before they pulled away had been an accident or not, you didn’t know, but either way they sent a wave of goosebumps down your spine, pulling the tiniest gasp from your lips. 

“Well?” you asked as you turned to face him, swiftly regathering your composure, and hoping he hadn’t noticed your reaction. “What do you think?”

“Not bad,” he said, but he couldn’t quite conceal the admiration in his eyes as he looked at you, even though he didn’t let his gaze linger. 

“I guess I owe you one, then, don’t I?” you asked.

“I wasn’t thinking about it that way, but I guess you do,” he said. “What’re you offering?”

“Hmm…” You considered for a moment. Your rule thus far had been to keep the soldiers at an arm’s length. But this felt different, and you thought you knew Bill well enough to know he wasn’t just trying to get in your pants. If that was all he wanted, he wouldn’t have gone to this much effort. No, he’d been thinking about you even when you weren’t around, and that thought made your heart beat a little faster, a giddy feeling coming with it. “There’s some chocolate and whiskey in the truck that they won’t notice missing if I cop it,” you said. “Looks like it’s gonna be a clear night tonight. Care for a couple drinks and some stargazing?”

“Are you coming onto me?” he asked, feigning surprise. “My ma warned me about girls like you-”

“Shut up and give me an answer,” you said, the laugh that came out of you then close enough to a giggle that it startled you a little.

“Yeah, sure,” he said. “What time you get off? I’ll come and find you.”

“Soon as I’m done cleaning these bandages,” you said. “Won’t be much good lookin’ at stars til it gets dark out though, will it?”

“Nah, but dinner’s easier in the daylight,” he said with an easy smile. “I’ll see you soon, all right?”

“All right, then.” You were trying not to smile too broadly - his ego didn’t need to be inflated any further - but you couldn’t really help it, and to your surprise, he didn’t tease you for it.

“And you better be here, okay?” he said as he backed away. “No runnin’ off.”

“Is that what the girls you usually go on dates with do?” you called after him, and he opened his mouth, most likely prepared to release some sort of choice profanity, before remembering who he was talking to.

“You keep talking like that and I’m gonna take that necklace back!” he replied instead.

You wrapped a protective hand around it. “I’d like to see you try.”


End file.
